Weekly Wrap up

This week started off slow, after a week off from any book work Rocket Boy wasn't keen to start again now that swim safe was over. 

Rocket Boy is now working on map 11 in Reading Eggs, this is the 2nd to last map, while this is something he can work on himself, allowing me to use this time to feed and settle Jellybean, I try to sit with him so I can see if he's actually retaining what is covered.  While he does fake his way thru some activities, if I push him he will prove to me that he actually knows what's required of him.

Rocket Boy worked on letter size and placement, as well as letter u, i and e this week.  Rocket Boy gets easily distracted during any kind work book work but with the hand gestures used for the different size and placements - Capitals, lowercase, tall and descending letters, Rocket Boy stayed on track and didn't keep playing up.

Maths was a little too simple this week, with addition and adding 1.  This made it hard to keep Rocket Boy interested, we quickly covered the lesson subject then went straight to the review pages. 

At Ladybugs new kindy they have a stump and hammer for the kids to hammer nails into.  I loved this idea and Rocket Boy couldn't tear himself away from it, so I found a way to do this at home,  I got the wood piece from a friend, the safely goggles, hammer, nails and bottle tops we already had.  I do keep the hammer and nails out of reach and get them out when I know I'll be able to watch the kids, while not directly supervising them, still keeping an eye out to ensure they follow safe practices. 

 

One Tuesday we joined a local homeschool group at Taitua Arboretum.  While the walk was a little long but manageable for Ladybug - she kept stopping and had to be encouraged to keep going.  Jelly bean also had a couple of meltdowns. It was a great day out and the kids both enjoyed playing with other kids.  When homeschooling it can seem like it's just mum and the kids day in and day out, so it's nice to mix it up with other families when you can. 

We do not celebrate Halloween, while it's starting to get popular in New Zealand and you may get one or two groups of trick or treaters knocking on your door on the night, I personally only see it as a commercial holiday used by retailers to sell candy and costumes.  

Due to a lot of the tv shows being american made both Rocket Boy and Ladybug know about Halloween so I allowed them to dress up with costumes they already had.  I bought them a pack of mini m&ms each and got them to complete an activity before they were allowed to eat them.  

Ladybug had to sort hers by colour.  Rocket Boy also had to sort his by colour but then he had to count each colour and write the total.  As I had to go settle Jellybean at one point I did come back to find Rocket Boy had started eating his without counting them so a lot of his numbers were made up.